----EDITED TO DESCRIBE THE PROCESS----
----EDITED TO UPDATE-----
(New parts in red)
----EDITED TO ADD BINPATCH PROCEDURE-----
(New parts in blue)
----EDITED TO ADD RESTRICTIONS AND ANOTHER REASON TO USE-----
(New parts in purple)


For those of you just joining the game, this thread has been discussing the various uses of and how to create .bsa files. To clarify, for those of you who don't know, the .bsa files are what Bethesda have made to archive all of Oblivion's data into a few compact files, instead of a ton of folder trees with a ton of files (which is MUCH harder to manage).

Now, why should the modding community care about .bsa files? Well, it makes packaging, installing, and uninstalling mods much easier, which is good for you, and the consumer. Basically, you can put all of your files (with the exception of the .esp and readme, of course) into one compact file. So, the user just plops that in his or her data folder and your mod will work.

It has been said, in this thread, that .bsa files would slow down load times, indefinitely, and would therefore cause the game itslef to be a slower experience. This is most definitely NOT true. A compressed .bsa file is about as fast as its uncompressed, folder tree brother. So, there really isn't any reason not to use this method of packaging your mod.

You might be thinking that it would make editing your textures, meshes, et cetera hard, though. Again, not so. Just remember to keep the original files, and you can access them again whenever you need them. After you've changed things, just repackage the .bsa file.

So, without further ado, the tutorial (adapted from JOG's description):
---------------------------------------
First, what you're going to need:

BSACommander -- This is what you'll be using to create your .bsa file
BinPatch -- This is what you'll be using to create patcher programs for your consumers

So, first you'll need to create your .bsa. Simple enough.

1, Create a folder and name it whatever you want. This will become our source folder.
2. Inside this folder place all the folders you would need for your mods files (i.e. textures\MyMod\)
3. Now put your mods files where they need to be. Remember do NOT place your .esp in this directory. It should NOT be compressed into your .bsa file
4. Now, open up BSACommander and click "Pack"
5. Where it says "Archive Name" click "..." and navigate to your Data folder. Type in the NAME OF YOUR .ESP FILE (without the .esp extension) and click save. If you do not use the same name as your .esp file, you will need to register the .bsa file in your .ini file, which is a pain. You could also fill this (and the next) part in manually, and if you were to do so, you have to make sure to include the FULL path, otherwise BSACommander will throw an error at you. (Brought up by mmmpld)
6. Where it says "Source Dir" click "..." and find the folder where you made in step one. Click on the folder and click okay.
7. Now make sure "recursive sbdrs" and "compress" are checked
8. Now where the two colored boxes are, click each question mark and click apply (one after the other).
9. Change the compression options if you want (default works for me) and then click "pack."

Viola. You've created your first .bsa. Boot up Oblivion and make sure it works. There might be a problem with your textures not showing up in game (as it is with mine when I used this method). After a bit of research I figured out that in the .nif file, the texture property's path shouldn't have any "/", but instead "\". If you're having problems with your texture, after putting everything in a .bsa, after you check to make sure your tree is set up right, make sure you used "\" in the .nif file.
------------------------------------

Now, here is the real beauty of putting your mod in a .bsa file. Once the consumer has the original .bsa file they can use significantly smaller patch programs that will update their .bsa files, if the need arises. To put it simply, the user gets the original and you update your mod's .bsa file. Now, you make a patch that will update the users old file.

Here's how:

1. Get the aforementioned program (binpatch)
2. Open up your command prompt and navigate to the "bin" directory of your new BINPATCH folder (created when you extract the download).
3. Type

CODE

genpatch -s=gui oldfile newfile patchname

replacing oldfile, with the original file's name, newfile with the new file's name, and patchname, with what you want the patch to be called. Make sure you type the FULL path name. (i. e. C:\Program Files\...)
4. Push enter and take your patch file and distribute it saying that people should only use it if they are upgrading, otherwise they should download the full .bsa.
5. The created executable is rather self-explanatory. The consumer simply clicks "browse" to find the old .bsa file and then clicks apply. All done. Pretty simple, no?

Now isn't that nice? Patch files are much smaller than the full .bsa and will allow you to distribute quick changes...quickly (hehe).

If there are multiple versions of the .bsa file, you can also type multiple oldfiles and they can all use that patchfile to update themselves. Yayyyy.
----------------------------------

I hope this helps some people, and I hope that people actually use it. It can make installing/uninstalling mods very simple, and even cut down on download size.

Now, some people might see this as being more trouble than it's worth. Well, for big mods, this could be VERY useful. It means that the user only has to download your .bsa file once, instead of having to download everything over and over again. Plus, this makes bandwith usage go down. Think of this, if 200 people have downloaded the first version of your 11 mb mod, then you update it, and had to change your .bsa file, then all the original people have to do is download a patch file, that could potentially be less than half the size of the .bsa file, which saves over a gigabyte of bandwith. It means downloads are faster, and the server your using likes you more. (This was brought up by JOG)

RESTRICTIONS

This will not work if you are doing texture replacements for Bethesda's original work. (Brought up by mmmpld). And you cannot pack .bik video files into you .bsa. Bethesda couldn't do that either. Other than that, we don't know of anything else.

Onimae

*kicks thread in the tush*

Get back up there.

Onimae

I was wondering this aswell. I know I plan to do this with my next mod, as it has a fairly large amount of files in different places and would be nothing but confusing for everyone (including me).

DEJ did for the harvest v2.1 release. My only concern is what happens when you want to release a fix for one file? More of a problem for big mods (which are more likely to use a bsa).

How do you go about creating the BSA, and what goes into it?

So it is possible, and it does work? Fantastic. I'll have to do some experimenting...did DEJ have to change anything in the .ini file for this to work? If you look there is a list of the archive files...I wonder if you have to add yours?

Onimae

The bsa uses the name of the esp, no need to change the ini. Can't remember which prog creates bsas.
PM Dejaside if you want, I'm sure he'd be glad to help.

Asked Dejaside to come join us at this thread, hopefully he will share how he did it. Be great if someone could turn it into an article on the Wiki.

The program is called BSACommander and you can find it.. on my desktop! Can't remember where I downloaded it sorry. All you have to do is make sure your .esp and .bsa have the same name (asides from the extension). This is how the official mods work. As for fixes, I think when the game looks for content it checks the folders first, and then the archive, so any replacement you make for fixes should be fine I guess. I don't see why you would want to change the content itself though in a fix, surely it would be the .esp that needs changing. Plugin files are not released in the .bsa, if that's what you were thinking. So you would still have to zip/rar/whatever it.

Edit: On the wiki you say? Some people don't lok hard enough .

Well for the mod I'm working on that has a lot of models to go with it I'm expecting to find some errors in the nif files, and they wont be fixable from in the CS. I might give the overwriting thing a try because it would keep the directories a lot cleaner and make uninstalling (for the non-omod crowd) a lot easier.

So a BSA is basically a collection of your custom Meshes etc, and you can bundle it with your .esp to make it easier for people to install?

Everything that goes in the data folder except the esp. (meshes, textures, xml, sounds, etc)

Exactly. It's an archive containing the textures/meshes/sound folders or whatever you want, with your files in. Everything in the archive needs to be structured in the same way that they are in your data files directory, in the same way that you linked to them in the CS.

Thanks for the Info guys. One more question, if i don't actually use any new meshes or textures in my mod, but i have created a new worldspace and generated LOD for it, do i still need a BSA (or distribute anything other than the .esp)? (sorry if this is obvious, i really don't know anything about BSAs)

I'm not sure about the LOD data, but I think it's in the esp.

@Dark_Soul

Thank You for the Invite... I have been fairly ill, and outta the loop a few days...
I will immediately read the entire topic ( already having skimmed it ) and add what I can...
Tho my first instinct is that I have little to add, this late in the discussion...

BRB...
-DEJ

Ok first stop...
Files can be anywhere, as long as they meet the top design format...
Meshes need to be under the Data/Meshes/Folder
Thextures need to be under the Data/Textures/Folder
Etc...

But once under the specified device there is no reason why they should conform to any set standard...
Ask, mmmpld, as he and I came to a conclusion for the Harvest Series.
Being the worry wort I am, I laid all the Alternate Meshes for Harvest [Flora] in the same pathes
As the Original Meshes... Bulloux! do they censor mis-spelled british curses? ( about to find out )

When mmmpld began work on Harvest [Containers] he was quite clear that it would serve us best,
to develop our own branch, under Meshes and Textures... Once I realized he was absolutley right,
the rework of the directory structures Harvest [Flora] began, and actually became the most crucial
element of the Harvest [Flora] Final... Why? Load the ESP into the TES4CS and quickly realize, all
Alternate [Flora] are now within their own perfectly suited subcategory within the CS...
( Under STATICS of course ) as a collapsible tree... ( if only i had known sooner )... DoH

Now that SAID... a BSA solves any complications involved with directory structure. All the files exist,
within a single compressed file, regardless of directory structure. So have at it, If you are gonna make a BSA
get all kinds of crazy; make all kinds of silly structure... Um, but what's the point? er, besides the fact you can?

OK, I have more to read.....
-DEJ

Bingo...

mmmpld always to my rescuse ( now if I can only get a model or two from him ) JK

BSAs are attractive to Large MODs. But Large MODs are gonna be the most in need of fixes...
And you can't actually fix a BSA easily. I suppose you could... Maybe using PAR2 technology...
( damn I just outted myself as NTTP User ).... DoH

OK, but seriously... Unless you intend to release a FINAL ( Final ) [Seriously Final] MOD...
I wouldn't recommend BSAs ( tho thinking about the concept of PAR2... er, N/M )

The Harvest [Flora] v2.1 was Final for a month before it's public release, I had enuf end users,
to ( I hope ) ensure the BSA was ready beyond a doubt.

----

Now on the otherhand, simple date modified files in the proper directories would overwrite the initial BSA...
If and when updates were necessary. But how do you manage to explain that in the first [3] lines of a ReadMe
which is unfortunately all that gets read by the majority of end users.

----

The discussion quickly become cyclic... And I am forced to defer to easiest is always best...
A BSA within a continuingly update MOD, is not the easiest solution.

----

The reason I wanted to include a BSA with Harvest [Flora] Final ( no matter the version ) was so it could
be uninstalled as quickly as it was installed. So all the banter 20 lines into the ReadMe about how to clean it up
was dilutted to "Delete the BSA". Unfortunately with all the various versions of Harvest Available, the ReadMe
still reads like an IQ test.
But in [6] six months... I can update the ReadMe like the Previous Versions never Happened.
Oblivion will continue into forever with Harvest [Flora] a Merlot stain on it's coat tail.
And Download dot COM still offering DEJ_harvestFlora_v0.75(RC3) to India
And other major Asian Nations will never notice.
Harvest [Flora] v2.1 will be it's own thing...

My only sincere hope, is that I never need to update the BSA.




OK, I have more to read ( can you tell I am on meds? )
-DEJ

OK the Program is Titled : TES4BSA Commander... by Vasiliy...
It is NOT finished. It is Hard to Use... There is Zero Help...

The best place to stay in touch with these resources is : UESP MOD Wiki

Tho I wouldn't hold my breath about updates...
Unless you speak Russian, and are on the same Core Code Level as the Author, and strike up a friendship.
I say this only because His Morrowind Utils, dont appear to have any significat version pathes.

But I will help anyone who needs my help... as best I can...
Email is always the best choice to get my attention...
At this point if you can't find my email, you're not actually in the game.
-DEJ

Okay. So these things can be useful I don't see the big deal about "fixing" them, though. As long as you keep the orignal files, somewhere away from the .bsa, you can fix them to your hearts desire, and then recompress them. I mean, you need to repackage your entire mod when you release a new version anyway, what's the harm in re-releasing your .bsa file?

Onimae

Thanks Dejaside for responding so quickly to my PM with information for us. From the looks of things I think i won't be needing to worry too much about BSA's at the moment, but is handy to know for future mods if i use custom models.

Why does he make it sound so difficult? If you have a lot of stuff to include, you're sure it's finished, and don't want an intimidating readme, then you can get BSA Commander (It's just called that, not TES4BSA Commander...) from here. It's quite a self explanatory program, so if you are good enough to be able to make a mod that uses lots of custom stuff, then the chances are you will have enough common sense to use this program. Sure, it's not finished, but it's version 0.97 and it works fine. Asides from that, the only thing you need to know is that the archive must have the same file structure as your data files directory for you stuff, but again, that's common sense.

I don't mean to argue, it's just that Dejaside's post looks really intimidating and offputting, but .bsa archives are a great thing for both modders and mod users, because it allows great ease of use of mods. If I had come here looking for information and read his posts, I would've just said 'whoah, forget that', but you don't need to be so intimidated because it's easy. I'd already covered all the necessary information before he even got here.

Patching a BSA is no problem at all, so there is absolutely no reason not to release your mods with a BSA.

And yes, using BSA Commander is very easy.

You could also use OBMM (which has a lot of other nice feature), though I have yet to try OBMM's .bsa creator...let me give it a run now and see how she goes.

Onimae

----EDIT----Looks like OBMMs creator is a no go. He hasn't gotten around to working in the compression, and it apparently doesn't create working .bsa files. Looks like I'll be going with the other program

Binpatch is a nice tool to create patches for EXEs, BSAs, ESPs whatever:

GUI Version

Commandline Version

The readme for BSACommander says that the .bsa has to be registered in the .ini, meaning you would have to edit it...

It also says you have to set up your own header...

Explanation?

Onimae

Yeah ignore that. Just as long as you give your /bsa and your .esp the same name, it should work.
Edit: Cheers for that link JOG .

BSA increase load times in games and degrade performance (compressed files means searching for the correct file and ecompressing). It really isn't worth: big mods would need updating in minors areas and have a larger performance hit (a pain) and small mods are worth the effort.

Okay...and how do I go about making one...there's no "new" option...(is a .bsa noob, lol).

Onimae

----EDIT----It has been tested. Decompressing all of Oblivion doesn't make load times, or gameplay, significantly faster or slower. Our .bsa files, then, would not cause any slowing down, either.

• 1. Copy all the stuff from your mod (including all subfolders) into a new folder so that they could be copied into Oblivion\Data\ to install the mod just as if you were distributing your mod unpacked.
  
  
• 2. Open BSACMD and Click on "Pack"
  
  
• 3. Type in a BSA Name (it needs to be the name of your mod with .BSA instead of .ESP)
  
  
• 4. Select the folder where your stuff is in.
  
  
• 5. Just to be sure click on the "?" next to "Archive Flags" and "File Flags" once and click on Apply without changing anything.
  
  
• 6. Click on Pack.

Note: You can't pack BIK-Files (Videos) that way. Bethesda couldn't either...

You can't? Sugar! Cheers for the heads up on that one mate .

Actually you can pack them, but the game won't play them

Alas, you don't need to put BIK files into Data\Video, so my mod puts the BIK file into "Data" with the same name as the ESP and BSA...

(Though my video is just a slideshow that adds 1-3MB (depending on quality) to the 11MB of the rest of the mod , so I still might remove it before release...)


One more thing about working with BSAs: After you've removed the Files from "Data\", the Construction Set will no longer find the meshes until you add your BSA to the Cunstructionset.INI file...

Well, I did a test and all went fantastically EXCEPT:

I had a texture in there for an object I created (so everything is new) and it was pink. What gives?

Onimae

P.S. JOG, that bit about the .ini is good to know. I would've been royally pissed if it wouldn't see them anymore :-p.

pink surface = can't find texture.

I know what it means, but the texture is in the .bsa file. The icon for the object pops up, but the texture doesn't...let me try recompressing.

Onimae

EDIT----I think it might have something to do with the .nif file looking in the data folder, but not finding it anywhere in there, but I can't be sure of that because I've no way of tracing path calls. Anyone gotten a .bsa to work with object textures?

It's more likely a problem with where you placed the textures when it was originally in

Oblivion\Data\Textures\Mymod\mytexture.dds

it needs to be copied to

NewFolder\Textures\Mymod\mytexture.dds

Also, make sure you haven't put the texture-names into "Archiveinvalidation.txt".



Yes

That's how I have it, JOG...let me check to see if its in the ArchiveInvalidation file.

Onimae


EDIT----No dice. I don't even have an ArchiveInvalidation file .

For further clarification, when I open up the .bsa in BSACommander, it says my textures are located here:



That is where they are supposed to be, so says the .nif...

And the flags in BSACMD are set correctly?

I'm pretty sure. I have the options checked for .dds files, otherwise my icon wouldn't work.

Is there something else I need to check that I don't know about?

Onimae

Did you die JOG ?

Or, are you just as stumped as I am?

Onimae

Yes, luckily I had my phylactery right at hand... Now... Well... lichdom is... interesting...



Kind of, versions before v0.97 didn't work at all but the current version works fine here
(16 meshes, 15 textures, 6 icons, 2 wav-files, 237 mp3-files, 237 lip-files)

Hmm...what does your texture branch look like? I can't imagine that being the problem...my .nif file is pointing right to where it is in the .bsa....

Onimae

Textures are in

PackageFolder\textures\thievery.esp\

Icons are in

PackageFolder\textures\menus\icons\thievery.esp\

The thievery.esp folder is just a remainder from times where BSACmd didn't work and I planned to release the mod as data-files.

And yes, I've sent the mod to beta testers and they can also see the textures.

Who said you had to compress the BSA at all? An uncompressed BSA with all the necessary resources is nearly as fast as open files in directories, and it's 100x more convenient for the user. There's no way in hell I'd release a large mod with hundreds or thousands of resource files if it wasn't packed into an uncompressed BSA.

Case in point: Split Infinity is over 600mb large. 2,550+ files spanning over 400 folders. And you're suggesting a mod like that be distributed as-is? No thanks - when using a BSA, it becomes a mere 3 files for the distribution: an ESM, a BSA, and an ESP.

I wholeheartedly believe your logic is flawed. The only drawback to larger BSAs, is updating resources. And that can be accomplished by issuing single files within folders, and using a tool to patch the BSA.

--= J

Now, when you say "package folder" you mean the source folder is PackageFolder, not that PackageFolder is actually in the .bsa files directory branch?

Onima

it's the folder I select in BSAcmd it's not inside the BSA.

The BSA looks like this: http://home.tiscali.de/jo.ge1/bsa.png

Okay. That's what I figured...well, I did the same thing you did, and no dice. This is kind of annoying. I even went as far as to register it in the .ini...anyway have any suggestions? It's the only thing that doesn't work. What does work:

Sound files
Voice files
Meshes
Icons

Just this stupid object texture....*grumbles*

This would be a super idea if the damnable thing would just work

Onimae

what are the flags? Should be:

Archive: 00000707

File: 0000001B

That's what they are...

Onimae

I updated the OP with steps to make the .bsa....I'm still baffled by this issue I'm having.

Onimae

Me too Onimae, ita maika no sense!
*Whistles* blah blah blah... bumping in disguise...

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!

Before, when I didn't have the .nif file in a .bsa file, it would find the texture at the path textures/cluter... But, if you do put it in a .bsa file, you have to change the path to textures\clutter...

The difference is between the "/" and the "\". If you're confused, I mean that in the .nif file, you have to change the path of the texture property to use "\". That is, of course, if you haven't already.

Yayyyyy. Now it workksssss. Time to update the OP again.

JOG, if you wouldn't mind, could you whip a tutorial really quick for using binpatch? I couldn't figure it out...I'll toss it in the OP if you do .

Onimae

(Sigh) Nifskope again...

Shouldn't the slash only work when you've included the whole path in the NIF ("c:/Program Files/Bethesda Softworks...")?

In this case the mod will only work for users that have installed Oblivion in the same folder as yourself...




I'm much better at snippy monosyllabic comments than at writing tutorials

I don't know when "/" should work, but I didn't have the whole path. It started at textures and went from there. *shrugs* It works now, so I'm happy. I just wish I could figure out binpatch. It seems like it would be really useful, but it looks like you need to know the hex address of your files, and that has me confused. If you could just explain how I get file a to replace file b in .bsa file c, that'd be super. (Kind of like a quick, monosyballic, tutorial )

Onimae

Never used the GUI version for the commandline version you create both bsas and then open the console and type




And you'll get an exe that changes "oldfile" into "newfile" you can even do



and you have a patch that will patch from all three older versions to the latest one...

So, you make a new .bsa, with just the updated files, and type that in the command line, run the .exe and the old file will include your changes?

Onimae

Genpatch.exe creates a new exe. This new exe will change the old bsa file into the new one. Just like Bethesdas patch works.

What's the point of that? Why not just make the new and distribute that? I don't see why you would need to update the old one when you have the updated version right there...

Onimae

Because a 1MB patch can be downloaded faster than a whole new version of a 20MB mod?

Ohhhh. The patch file. You don't...I GET IT NOW...hehe. Okay. That is useful.

But, you gave us links to binpatch...is genpatch another program?

Onimae

"Genpatch.exe" is the "Generate patch" program of the commandline version of binpatch.

There is another progam named "dopatch.exe" to apply the patch, you need this only when you don't want to create an executable patch. (Thus you have to send the 23KB patch-program-code only once, and then just send the actual patch-data. useful for low-bandwidth connections, when you frequently send tiny patches around, e.g. updating a program for your beta testers)

Okay. I didn't get binpatch from your link...and it only included binpatch. I didn't get it from your link because it wouldn't load...I think I'm missing something (hehe).

Onimae


EDIT----Your links appear to work now

duh...

Forget that link... this version is 2 years older than the one I'm using (and mine is 7 years old...)

get these instead:

Commandline: http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/CPatch/patchutil...ch/mkpat30n.zip

WindowsGUI: http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/CPatch/patchutil...ch/mkpat30g.zip

(1 am... I'm going to bed now, so don't expect any responses for a while )

One thing: IO want to replace a texture already within a .BSA. I have tried many times, and all failed. How would I go about this?

When using BSACMD the Archive Name needs to be a full path, ie C:\some.bsa (thanks DEJ), or it just throws a 'invalid params' error.

You can't change a file in a .bsa file, directly. You have to extract it, and the repackage the whole .bsa file. Luckily your consumers will only need the first .bsa file, and then can use a patcher program. Read the updated OP for more info.

Thank you mmmpld, I forgot to mention that .

Onimae

Okay. Updated the OP for making .bsa files and making patch files. JOG, when you get back, let me know if there is anything else there that you think I should add.

Anyone else who feels they have a contribution to make, feel free to speak up. I don't bite .

Onimae

EDIT----Could a dev maybe change the name of this thread to ".bsa files and you" and change the description to "how you can make your own .bsa files..." or something like that? That'd be super. Thanks

I definitely think you should add that the bsa to be created needs to be a full path to the OP.

So far I haven't had much success with getting replacement .nifs to work. I can get them to show if I add the bsa to the ini but only after unequiping and reequiping the replaced armor, for NPCs in the first cell the armor stays as the original and didn't switch after leaving the cell, sleeping 75 hours and returning (NPCs in the other cell were fine). To me this limits the use of bsas quite drastically—and rather useless for the files that would most benefit from being in one location. If anyone has had success getting replacement files in bsas to work seamlessly without modifying the oblivion.ini I'd be very interested in hearing it.

My other non-replacing files worked fine. For now I'll stick with .omods (not that I'd planned to stop).

Another justification for patches is bandwidth: when your 11MB mod has 200 users and half of them download the 1Mb patch instead of the whole version, then it's 1GB less that is downloaded from your server...

Or anyone else's server, keeping places like tessource faster .

Um, no comment on my post? It seems to me that BSAs are useless for what they'd be best used for...

Yes, we all know that BSAs are useless to "fix" Bethesdas textures.

They are great to add new content, and this should be by far the majority of mods.

To change Bethesdas stuff make a new version of their BSAs and create a patch or distribute your improved textures as single files with a text-patch to add to ArchiveInvalidation.txt.

I don't think 'we all know this', certainly I didn't before I tied it. I'm not saying bsa's are bad, only less useful than the first post and wiki entry would make it seem. Certainly not the holy grail of mod distribution.

Well, everyone who sucessfully "fixed" Bethesdas art-files knows that he had to invalidate the archive to make the game actually use the new file, Once you've invalidated the archive the game will ignore all archives of course, that's common sense.

No problem if you don't want to use BSAs, you are free to use whatever format you prefer.

Just accept that those of us that add new stuff instead of "fixing" Bethesdas have no problem using BSAs.


That said, besides UI-elements, new base-faces and nifty bodies, I see absolutely no reason to actually replace Bethesdas art files. All potential for conflicts aside, it's a matter of respect for Bethesda's work.

As far as I know it's only texture replacements that need ai.txt? I'm pretty sure separate pauldrons would look darn silly if they weren't first removed from the cuirasses.

You're right mmmpld. I've updated the OP with the full path and how retexturing Bethesda work and packaging it in a .bsa file won't work. I'll change the colors later, as I have to leave in about 10 seconds.

Onimae

Yay! Thank you, I was just starting to stress out today as to how to pack up my textures for my town when it's all completed. They're spread out all over in the various folders and I was afraid I'd leave one out by the time I'm done when I zip it haha

This makes things a lot easier!

No problem, Allegra. Let us know if you have any problems.

Onimae

Yep this is a major problem... I've long since started to add new files to the BSA-Package-folder instead of Oblivion\Data and just update the BSA, this way you can be sure that you have the same problems with missing or misplaced files like all others

A bump, because I think this is useful information and should be seen.

I just released my mod using this technique. Everything is working marvelously.

Onimae

Just wanted to say thanks for the guide. The Dark Journeys team is now using .BSAs to save ourselves from users with installation issues. In our larger mods, should things need patching, we will be using your system probably. Good stuff.

Not a problem, Valkyrie321. This is another shameless bump because this has been on the bottom for a while.

Onimae

Tried to make a BSA archive with meshes and textures inside it, but I got some error saying something about parameters and it didn't make that BSA file. Not really sure what went wrong because I did everything as the tutorial explained.

Will I get a significant speed increase then, if I unpack the BSAs the game came with and use them from the DOS directory tree instead?

Sorry to ask a ...oh my, the teapot is boiling, toodles! question, but here it comes. Can I use BSACommander to unpack just selected files or a single file from a BS archive?

Hi All!

Don't know who will bother to read this, but here goes.

I have read WIKI and this forum, which advise me that if the .bsa file name is the same as the .esp file name, then the .bsa file does not need to be "registered" in the oblivion.ini file.

I have observed that for several cases this is not always the case.

I have also found that when using an alternate method i.e. when "registering" my .bsa files, the Oblivion.ini file line for it's archive list will truncate after about 264 characters.

This gets me no voices for my npc's, since the first casualty is the voices2.bsa file.

Sorry, but as much as I would like to port as much as I can to a .bsa file, the recommended method(s) simply don't get me there; mostly because the .ini file does not seem to be designed to support the alternate method of "registering" numerous .bsa files.

I don't understand why the .ini file has specific identifiers for all its shipped .bsa files AND requires those files to appear on the archives list.

TF

It is possible for you to rename your default Oblivion BSA files if you update them in the INI file.

all right, i know this sounds dumb and selfish but, can someone tell me where to go to get a guide or one they made themselves? im looking for the most simplified guide EVER, im talkin one that tells u more than .esp files or watever, cant there be one where it says"now click that button there that says save." sounds dumb but im hearing stuff like, unpack the files and add your textures, i just need ONE SIMPLE GUIDE. atomicwarz1@hotmail.com....

I...I don't understand, unfortunately. I just want to change the dds and NIF files for a book. That's it. I was referred (is that one 'r' or two?) to this site, and I don't get it. What do I need to do this?

1. Thread necromancy is against the rules. Just start your own thread with your question.

2. If you want to 'change' anything that already exists, you HAVE to unpack the BSA files. You will need a program to unpack them, and the smarts to move the files it unpacks to your \oblivion\data\ folder.

Depending on 'what' you want to change will determine which BSA files you need to unpack.

Here is a good BSA unpacker: Click for BSA Commander

If the object is a vanilla Oblivion item, then load this file into BSA Commander and unpack it:
a. This will give you the meshes.
\oblivion\data\Oblivion - Meshes.bsa
b. This will give you the textures.
\oblivion\data\Oblivion - Textures - Compressed.bsa

Move the unpacked files to your oblivion 'data' folder.

Use an art program that can load DDS textures.
This wiki page has some information on this, and the download site for the DDS plugins for different art programs.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Retex_Guide

Use the wiki page above to learn how to retexture objects.

If you want to make a 'new' object with the new texture (so you don't change ALL occurances of it in your game) then download and use nifscope to change the texture path in the mesh. (NIF)
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=170735

None of this is easy, but this is a good start. Keep trying and use common sense and you should figure it out.

Alright, sorry and thanks, as appropriate.

And another for the same reasons, useful to retain.